History Main / SkullCups

* Karl Tanner in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' drinks from the skull of his slain boss [[spoiler: Lord Commander Mormont]].

The beverage in question may be blood, but is typically wine or some sort of elixir that may necessarily need to be imbibed from an enemy's skull. Other situations in which this trope commonly occurs include proposing a toast to the defeat of the enemy in question or intentionally wrong Shakespeare parodies.

* ''Literature/HowToSurviveCamping'': The man with a skull cup carries one around, [[CaptainObvious as his name implies]]. Drinking from it will leave one unable to eat or drink for the entire next day, but it is much preferable to what happens to those who refuse the drink.

** The Lombard king Alboin, who reigned in Italy in the 6th century, purportedly had a cup made from the skull of Cunimund, a Gepid king he had defeated and killed. The legend goes that her forced Cunimund's daughter Rosamund, who he had forcibly married in the meantime, to drink from her father's skull. This strengthened Rosamund's determination to avenge her father, leading to her involvement in the coup that killed Alboin.

-->-- '''Timandahaf''', ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} and the Normans''

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'''s ''Holy Fury'' expansion redoes personal combat. If you beheaded an enemy commander in a battlefield duel, you may get an event later where a soldier asks you if you really drink from the skulls of your enemies. Your character ruefully laughs it off and says something like [[RememberWhenYouBlewUpASun "I'm never living that one down, am I?"]]

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'''s ''Holy Fury'' expansion redoes personal combat. If you beheaded an enemy commander in a battlefield duel, you may get an event later where a soldier asks you if you really drink from the skulls of your enemies.

* According to a modern legend, Blackbeard's skull ended up plated to use as a drinking cup.
* Possibly the most famous (allegedly) historical instance of this is the story of how the skull of the [[UsefulNotes/TheByzantineEmpire Byzantine Emperor]] Nikephoros I ended up lined with silver and presented to the Bulgar Khan Krum as a drinking cup after Nikephoros was killed at the Battle of Pliska in 811.
* An apocryphal and most likely made-up story about UsefulNotes/OdaNobunaga is that he had the skull of his former [[HonorBeforeReason ally-turned-enemy]] Azai Nagamasa turned into a sake cup and drank from it in at least one public setting. This tale tends to become truth for fictional depictions of the character, as seen under the anime and manga section.

* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'': Banner-General Furyk Karede's manservant, who comes from a hill tribe that never quite assimilated into TheEmpire, owns a drinking bowl made from the top of a skull. Karede finds it pretty creepy. Nonetheless, when he gets a surprise visit from StateSec and has to offer refreshments, he realizes it's the only other drinking vessel at hand and forces himself to act nonchalant while using it. The agent is [[HorrifyingTheHorror a bit perturbed]].

* The late Roman historiographer Ammianus Marcellinus (4th century AD) writes about the Scordisci, a Celtic tribe inhabiting a region of Thrace (now Serbia), that in former times they used to sacrifice their prisoners "and from their hollowed skulls greedily to drink human blood" (book 27).

* In the Latin translation of the Old Norse "Literature/{{Krakumal}}" a.k.a. "The Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrok" made in 1635 by the Danish antiquarian Ole Worm, Ragnar Lodbrok expresses his belief that after his earthly demise, he will drink "from the curved hollows of skulls" in Odin's hall. In his commentary, Worm elaborated that the heroes of old "believed that in Odin's hall they would drink from the skulls of those they had slain". In reality, Worm's translation is wrong, as the Old Norse text actually means "from curved trees of the skull", which is to say, from drinking horns (because they grow on a bovine skull). As early translations of "Krákumál" into English were based on Worm's Latin version rather than the original, popular wisdom in Britain and elsewhere maintained far into the 19th century that Vikings used to drink from skull cups, or hoped to do so in the afterlife (they did neither).

* In the Latin translation of the Old Norse "Literature/{{Krakumal}}" a.k.a. "The Death-Song of Ragnar Lodbrok" made in 1635 by the Danish antiquarian Ole Worm, Ragnar Lodbrok expresses his belief that after his earthly demise, he will drink "from the curved hollows of skulls" in Odin's hall. In his commentary, Worm elaborated that the heroes of old "believed that in Odin's hall they would drink from the skulls of those they had slain". In reality, Worm's translation is wrong, as the Old Norse text actually means "from curved trees of the skull", which is to say, from drinking horns (because they grow on a bovine skull). As early translations of "Krákumál" into English were based on Worm's Latin version rather than the original, popular wisdom in Britain and elsewhere maintained far into the 19th century that Vikings drank from skull cups, or hoped to do so in the afterlife (they did neither).

* In the legend of Wayland the Smith, he is imprisoned by a king to work only for him, having his hamstrings cut to prevent escape. As part of his revenge for this and other slights, he tricks the king's sons into visiting him, kills them, and makes their skulls into ivory goblets, which he gifts to the king and queen. (And as a nice bonus, Wayland set the kids' teeth into brooches which he also gifted to the royal couple.)

* Blackbeard's skull ended up plated to use as a drinking cup.